(ACCEPTABLE
USE POLICY)
Introduction
VIP
PowerNet's (VIP PowerNet) Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") is provided
to give our customers and users a clear understanding of what VIP PowerNet expects
of them while using the service. All users of VIP PowerNet's Internet services:
those who access some of our Services but do not have accounts, as well as those
who pay a service fee to subscribe to the Services, must comply with this AUP.
Use of VIP PowerNet Service constitutes acceptance and agreement to VIP PowerNet's
AUP as well as VIP PowerNet's Terms and Conditions.
We support the uncensored flow of information
and ideas over the Internet and do not actively monitor subscriber activity under
normal circumstances. Similarly, we do not exercise editorial control over the
content of any web site, e-mail transmission, newsgroups, or other material created
or accessible over or through the services, except for certain proprietary Web
sites. However, in accordance with our Terms & Conditions, we may remove any
materials that, in our sole discretion, may be illegal, may subject us to liability,
or which may violate this AUP. VIP PowerNet may cooperate with legal authorities
and/or third parties in the investigation of any suspected or alleged crime or
civil wrongdoing. Your violation of this AUP may result in the suspension or immediate
termination of either your VIP PowerNet account or other actions as detailed in
Section 3. This AUP should be read in conjunction with our Terms & Conditions
and other policies.
This document is intended to provide a basic
understand of VIP PowerNet's Acceptable Use Policy. The following are guidelines
for the establishment and enforcement of VIP PowerNet's AUP:
Ensure reliable service to our customers
Ensure security and privacy of our systems
and network, as well as the networks and systems of others
Comply with existing laws
Maintain our reputation as a responsible
service provider
Encourage responsible use of the Internet
and discourage activities which reduce the usability and value of Internet services
Preserve the value of Internet resources
as a conduit for free expression and exchange of information
Preserve the privacy and security of individual
users
VIP PowerNet intends to provide its customers
access to everything the Internet has to offer. While VIP PowerNet is firmly committed
to the principles of free speech, certain activities are damaging to the resources
of both VIP PowerNet and the Internet and cannot be permitted under the guise
of free speech. The resources of VIP PowerNet and the Internet are limited, and
abuse of these resources by one user has a negative impact on the entire community.
We do not routinely monitor the activity
of accounts except for measurements of system utilization and the preparation
of billing records. However, in our efforts to promote good citizenship within
the Internet community, we will respond appropriately if we become aware of inappropriate
use of our service.
If a VIP PowerNet account is used to violate
the Acceptable Use Policy, we reserve the right to terminate your service without
notice. We prefer to advise customers of inappropriate behavior and any necessary
corrective action. However, flagrant violations of the Acceptable Use Policy will
result in immediate termination of service. Our failure to enforce this policy,
for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of our right to do so
at any time.
As a member of our network community, you
must use your Internet access responsibly. If you have any questions regarding
this policy, please contact us at abuse@VIP PowerNet.com.
VIOLATIONS OF VIP PowerNet ACCEPTABLE USE
POLICY
The following constitute violations of this
AUP:
Important: ‘Unlimited Access’ means unlimited
number of times a user can connect. It does not mean a user can stay on for 24
hours a day seven days a week. This account is intended for normal use only. VIP
PowerNet uses automated software to monitor usage patterns, number of times user
has been disconnected due to inactivity, number of times user reconnects and the
number of hours the user has used. Based on this the software may determine that
the usage is excessive and abnormal, which will then deactivate your account.
By using this policy the company is able to limit busy signals and limit abuse.
Illegal use. Use of the VIP PowerNet service
to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that, intentionally
or unintentionally, violates any applicable local, state, national, or international
law, or any rules or regulations promulgated thereunder.
Harm to minors. Use of the VIP PowerNet service
to harm, or attempt to harm, minors in any way, including, but not limited to
child pornography.
Threats. Use of the VIP PowerNet service
to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that threatens
or encourages bodily harm or destruction of property.
Harassment. Use of the VIP PowerNet service
to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that harasses
another.
Fraudulent activity. Use of VIP PowerNet
service to make fraudulent offers to sell or buy products, items, or services,
or to advance any type of financial scam such as "pyramid schemes,"
"ponzi schemes," and "chain letters."
Forgery or impersonation. Adding, removing
or modifying identifying network header information in an effort to deceive or
mislead is prohibited. Attempting to impersonate any person by using forged headers
or other identifying information is prohibited. The use of anonymous remailers
or nicknames does not constitute impersonation.
Unsolicited commercial e-mail / Unsolicited
bulk e-mail Use of the VIP PowerNet service to transmit any unsolicited commercial
or unsolicited bulk e-mail is expressly prohibited. Violations of this type will
result in the immediate termination of the offending VIP PowerNet account.
E-mail / News Bombing: Malicious intent to
impede another person's use of electronic mail services or new media will result
in the immediate termination of the offending VIP PowerNet account.
E-mail / Message Forging: Forging any message
header, in part or whole, of any electronic transmission, originating or passing
through the VIP PowerNet service is in violation of this AUP.
Usenet Spamming: VIP PowerNet, Inc. has a
zero tolerance policy for the use of its network for the posting of messages or
commercial advertisements which violate the rules, regulations, FAQ or charter
of any newsgroups or mailing list. Commercial messages that are appropriate under
the rules of a newsgroups or mailing list or that are solicited by the recipients
are permitted.
Unauthorized access. Use of the VIP PowerNet
service to access, or to attempt to access, the accounts of others, or to penetrate,
or attempt to penetrate, security measures of VIP PowerNet's or another entity's
computer software or hardware, electronic communications system, or telecommunications
system, whether or not the intrusion results in the corruption or loss of data,
is expressly prohibited and the offending VIP PowerNet account is subject to immediate
termination.
Copyright or trademark infringement. Use
of the VIP PowerNet service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting
or otherwise) that infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or
other proprietary rights of any third party, including, but not limited to, the
unauthorized copying of copyrighted material, the digitization and distribution
of photographs from magazines, books, or other copyrighted sources, and the unauthorized
transmittal of copyrighted software.
Collection of personal data. Use of the VIP
PowerNet service to collect, or attempt to collect, personal information about
third parties without their knowledge or consent.
Reselling the services. Reselling of VIP
PowerNet service without our express written authorization is prohibited.
Network disruptions and unfriendly activity.
Use of the VIP PowerNet service for any activity which affects the ability of
other people or systems to use VIP PowerNet Services or the Internet. This includes
"denial of service" (DOS) attacks against another network host or individual
user. Interference with or disruption of other network users, services or equipment
is prohibited. It is the Member's responsibility to ensure that their network
is configured in a secure manner. A Subscriber may not, through action or inaction,
allow others to use their network for illegal or inappropriate actions. A Subscriber
may not permit their network, through action or inaction, to be configured in
such a way that gives a third party the capability to use their network in an
illegal or inappropriate manner. Unauthorized entry and/or use of another company
and/or individual's computer system will result in immediate account termination.
VIP PowerNet will not tolerate any subscriber attempting to access the accounts
of others, or penetrate security measures of other systems, whether or not the
intrusion results in corruption or loss of data.
Long Connections and Multiple Logins. Using
a personal account for high volume or commercial use is prohibited. The Services
are intended for periodic, active use of e-mail, newsgroups, file transfers, Internet
chat, games, and browsing the World Wide Web. Members may stay connected so long
as they are actively using that connection for the above purposes. Members may
not use the Services on a standby or inactive basis in order to maintain a connection.
Accordingly, VIP PowerNet maintains the right to terminate any member's connection
following any extended period of inactivity as determined by VIP PowerNet. A single
account is intended for one individual to access the Internet. Multiple logins
under the same user ID are not allowed.
Fraud: Involves a knowing misrepresentation
or misleading statement, writing or activity made with the intent that the person
receiving it will act upon it.
Infringement of Copyright, Patent, Trademark,
Trade Secret, or Intellectual Property Right: Distribution and/or posting of copyrighted
or the aforementioned infringements will not be tolerated.
Distribution of Viruses: Intentional distributions
of software that attempts to and/or causes damage, harassment, or annoyance to
persons, data, and/or computer systems are prohibited. Such an offense will result
in the immediate termination of the offending account.
Inappropriate Use of Software: Use of software
or any device that would facilitate a continued connection, i.e. pinging, while
using VIP PowerNet services could result in suspension service.
Third Party Accountability: VIP PowerNet
subscribers will be held responsible and accountable for any activity by third
parties, using their account, that violates guidelines created within the Acceptable
Use Policy.
Your FREE Personal Home Page
Your account with VIP PowerNet provides you
with FREE personal home page space. VIP PowerNet will not routinely monitor the
contents of your personal home page. Your are solely responsible for any information
contained on your personal home page. However, if complaints are received regarding
language, content or graphics contained on your personal home page, VIP PowerNet
may, at its sole discretion, remove the personal home page hosted on VIP PowerNet
servers and terminate your personal home page service.
You may not use your personal home page site
to publish material which VIP PowerNet determines, at its sole discretion, to
be unlawful, indecent or objectionable. For purposes of this policy, "material"
refers to all forms of communications including narrative descriptions, graphics
(including photographs, illustrations, images, drawings, logos), executable programs,
video recordings, and audio recordings.
This space should not be used for commercial
activities. Server side scripting is not supported, i.e.: CGI, PERL, ASP, e-commerce
Client side scripting may be used at your discretion, however, VIP PowerNet 24
hour phone tech support will not be provided for any of the above listed services.
If you think you will need these options a Hosted Domain with VIP PowerNet provides
them, and it is Just 10 Bucks™, too!
Additional E-mail Boxes
All provisions of the Acceptable Use Policy
apply to your use of extra e-mail boxes. Misuse of Extra E-mail Boxes services
may result in termination of your account.
As the primary account holder, you are responsible
for all account activity. If a secondary mailbox is involved in a violation of
the Acceptable Use Policy, your account, including all secondary mailboxes may
be terminated. A terminated account will result in lost e-mail and Internet access
for all users of your account. Therefore, it is important that your make sure
everyone you will allow to use your account or a secondary mailbox understands
all terms of this Acceptable Use Policy and the consequences of violations.
Security
You are responsible for any misuse of your
account, even if the inappropriate activity was committed by a friend, family
member, guest or employee. Therefore, you must take steps to ensure that others
do not gain unauthorized access to your account. In addition, you may not use your account to breach security of
another account or attempt to gain unauthorized access to another network or server.
Your password provides access to your account.
It is your responsibility to keep your password secure.
Sharing your password and account access
with unauthorized users is prohibited. You should take care to prevent others
from using your account since you will be held responsible for such use.
Attempting to obtain another user's account
password is strictly prohibited, and may result in termination of service.
You must adopt adequate security measures
to prevent or minimize unauthorized use of your account.
You may not attempt to circumvent user authentication
or security of any host, network or account. This includes, but is not limited
to, accessing data not intended for you, logging into or making use of a server
or account you are not expressly authorized to access, or probing the security
of other networks. Use or distribution of tools designed for compromising security
is prohibited. Examples of these tools include, but are not limited to, password,
guessing programs, cracking tools or network probing tools.
You may not attempt to interfere with service
to any user, host or network ("denial of service attacks"). This includes,
but is not limited to, "flooding" of networks, deliberate attempts to
overload a service, and attempts to "crash" a host.
Users who violate systems or network security
may incur criminal or civil liability. VIP PowerNet will cooperate fully with
investigations of violations of systems or network security at other sites, including
cooperating with law enforcement authorities in the investigation of suspected
criminal violations.
Network Performance
VIP PowerNet accounts operate on shared resources.
Excessive use or abuse of these shared network resources by one customer may have
a negative impact on all other customers. Misuse of network resources in a manner
which impairs network performance is prohibited by this policy and may result
in termination of your account.
You are prohibited from excessive consumption
of resources, including CPU time, memory, disk space and session time. You may
not use resource-intensive programs which negatively impact other customers or
the performances of VIP PowerNet systems or networks. VIP PowerNet reserves the
right to terminate or limit such activities.
You may not establish more than one connection
to our network from your account at any one time.
You may not provide network services from
your account (for example, you may not use your account to operate an ftp or a
web server), unless your account type specifically provides for it.
Each customer account will be provided 10
MB of disk storage for each e-mail box. Messages left on VIP PowerNet's mail servers
for more than thirty days (30 days) are subject to immediate deletion read or
unread. Total mailbox storage is limited to 10MB per mailbox without regard to
the age of the messages in the mailbox. Once the 10 MB limit is exceeded, any
incoming messages will be returned to the sender until the subscriber reduces
mailbox size by removing mail from the server.
You may not employ automated electronic or
mechanical processes designed to defeat network inactivity time-outs. Such tools
include, but are not limited to, use of an auto-dialer and repetitive pinging
of a host.
Internet Relay Chat
Although VIP PowerNet does not offer technical
support for Internet Relay Chat (IRC), you may use your account to connect to
IRC servers and networks maintained by VIP PowerNet or third parties. Please remember
that you are a guest when you make use of these facilities. It is particularly
important that you do not engage in activities which might interfere with other
customers' access to IRC.
You may not use IRC scripts or programs that
interfere with or deny service to other users on any other server, host, network
or channel.
You may not engage in activities which harass
other users. This includes, but is not limited to, "flooding" (rapidly
entering text with the intent to disrupt service), "flashing" (disrupting
terminal emulation), "takeovers" (improper seizure and abuse of operator
privileges), attempting to send private messages to those who do not wish to receive
them, attempting to return to a channel after being banned from it, and other
disruptive behaviors.
You may not attempt to impersonate other
users. The use of nicknames does not constitute impersonation.
You may not run "clones" (multiple
simultaneous IRC connections).
REPORTING VIOLATIONS OF VIP PowerNet AUP
VIP PowerNet requests that anyone who believes
that there is a violation of this AUP direct the information to the Abuse Department
at abuse@VIP PowerNet.net.
If available, please provide the following
information:
The IP address used to commit the alleged
violation
The date and time of the alleged violation,
including the time zone or offset from GMT
Evidence of the alleged violation
E-mail with full header information provides
all of the above, as do system log files. Other situations will require different
methods of providing the above information. VIP PowerNet may take any one or more
of the following actions in response to complaints:
Issue written or verbal warnings
Suspend the Member's newsgroups posting privileges
Suspend the Member's account
Terminated the Member's account
Bill the Member for administrative costs
and/or reactivation charges
Bring legal action to enjoin violations and/or
to collect damages, if any, cause by violations
REVISIONS TO THIS ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY
VIP PowerNet reserves the right to revise,
amend, or modify this AUP, our Terms and Conditions and our other policies and
agreements at any time and in any manner. Notice of any revision, amendment, or
modification will be posted in accordance with the Terms and Conditions.
Copyright 2001 VIP PowerNet
